DNC 2012: Democrats reframe abortion debate

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Democrats think they’ve figured out how to win the abortion debate: Don’t make it about abortion.

Starting Tuesday, the Democratic convention here will feature speeches from Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Cecile Richards, NARAL President Nancy Keenan and Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke, who became a flashpoint in the debate over requiring Catholic institutions to pay for birth control.

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Fluke talks abortion at RNC

But don’t expect them to focus on abortion — or even necessarily use the word. Instead, they’ll defend President Barack Obama’s record on reproductive health and reproductive rights. And, as they have before, they’ll accuse GOP nominee Mitt Romney and his party of waging a “war on women.”

Obama’s significant lead among women has given him a slight edge in most national and swing-state polls. Republicans attempted to beat back Democratic attacks last week in Tampa — both Ann and Mitt Romney made specific appeals to women — but Democrats believe they’ve got the clear advantage going into November.

To keep and strengthen its standing, the party has recast its rhetoric on abortion rights. Polls consistently show that a majority of Americans favor at least some abortion restrictions. So Democrats have made the contentious issue part of a larger conversation about women’s health — and that, in turn, is part of a larger conversation that depicts Republicans as opposed to equal pay and access to education for women.

“It is in a context,” Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.) said. “It is a context that voters deserve to know, and are having an adverse reaction to.”

Republicans have given Democrats plenty to talk about, including the bills blocking federal funds for abortion that House Republicans passed immediately upon taking the majority and the ongoing effort to defund Planned Parenthood, which Romney supports. And that was before Rep. Todd Akin weighed in last month on “legitimate rape.”

“In both the contraception debate and the Todd Akin debate, these issues of reproductive health have become entwined with issues around how you view women and women’s rights and women’s autonomy. And it was the Republican Party and their members who did that,” said Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress and Obama’s 2008 campaign domestic policy director.

Democrats haven’t always been this cohesive on the abortion debate. In 1992, then-Pennsylvania Gov. Bob Casey was blocked from speaking to the Democratic convention as part of a fight over his anti-abortion views. For the next decade, Democrats lost House and Senate races in which abortion and measures to limit abortion became central, including fetal-pain legislation and late-term abortion bans.

In the years since, the number of anti-abortion Democrats in Washington has dwindled, and the party has coalesced in favor of abortion rights. Not until the past few months, though, did Democrats begin to put so much attention on issues related to contraception, women’s health care and abortion.

“I’ve never actually seen an election — and I’ve been through a few — where women’s basic access to health care has been so early and so often a topic of conversation,” Richards said.

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WOW you mean the Dems have finally seen the light? Or better put, they see another way to capture a vote! Not a matter of principle as the Repubs..just a matter of more government ..but hey! Ill take less abortions any way I can!

Shouldn't they accuse Bill Clinton and Los Angeles Major Villaraigosa on their fake war on women? Didn't democrats see all the families and kids at the Republican convention? It is the democrats that hate children - they even prohibit them at the convention.

“Even the use of contraception is unacceptable,” Schwartz said, speaking of the position that many Republicans took during the fight over birth-control coverage in February. “It’s so out of the mainstream — 90 percent of American women have that as a solid, settled issue. When they’re out of step with 90 percent of American women, certainly voters should know that.”

NONSENSE. The issue was and is, should the taxpayers be forced to pay for Sandra Fluke's birth control pills? For her recreational pleasure? Good grief!

........lol glad to see the Democrats are firmly focused on the Top issues of 2012, the Economy.........lol.

Folks you just can't make this stuff up.

Don't kid yourself. You may condescendingly laugh at the thought that women's issues are important, but women's autonomy, rights and equality are supremely important issues in this campaign, right up there with the economy and job growth. The Republicans have long been waging a war of sorts against women. Are women men's equal or not? Republicans think not, which is why they try to control women's health decisions and why they vote against strengthening our laws to insure women receive equal pay for equal work. Republican leadership (all Caucasian males, by the way), be it the presidential team, the House, the Senate or RNC, have tried to keep women in an inferior position, to keep them from equal autonomy and rights. It is high time the Republicans are made to pay for their disrespectful chauvinism and bullying. Give them hell, ladies! And, Democratic men, you also give Republicans hell for their chauvinism!

Roameo: "Don't kid yourself. You may condescendingly laugh at the thought that women's issues are important, but women's autonomy, rights and equality are supremely important issues in this campaign, right up there with the economy and job growth."..........................Baloney. The only people who equate access to free contraception and abortion with 23,000,000 unemployed, over 45,000,000 on food stamps, and 1.4% growth don't have any brains or compassion to start with.

"Obama’s significant lead among women has given him a slight edge in most national and swing-state polls."

Does it lead one to wonder about the wisdom of giving women the vote?

Team Romney and the RNC should hire you, Steve, for you certainly represent their attitude well. Women shouldn't have minds of their own and if they disagree with you, O Wise (Male) One, they should have their right to vote taken away (by males) -- at least until the women "grow up" or get a "proper (male) education" and do as you would have them do, right? Ugh.

Except when Romney keeps changing his position which he just did again

first

"I will preserve and protect a woman's right to choose," he said in a 2002 debate with O'Brien. "And I do take exception to Shannon characterizing my view as being any different than hers in this regard; The Boston Globe recently reported there's not a paper's width worth of difference between our two positions in this regard."

then

"My own view is that I oppose abortion except for cases of rape, incest, and where the life of the mother is threatened," he told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt Aug. 24.

now

"My position has been clear throughout the campaign," he said. "I'm in favor of abortion being legal in the case of rape and incest, and health and life of the mother."

So in that interview, Romney added one more exception — for the woman's health.

It isn't just abortion but also birth control. Ryan co sponsored the person hood bill and 41 Repubs signed it. Romney said if it came to his desk he would sign it. The person hood bill would make a cell a person and outlaw most forms of birth control.

No one likes abortion but the govern must not tell women what they can and can't do with their own bodies otherwise the government will tell men with healthy kidneys they need to give one to those on waiting lists that will die without it.

The biggest users of welfare are single women and children. The government should give out free birth control on every corner.

A woman having control over her body is the number one economic issue. Being forced to have kids cost money to feed. No one hires a 7 month pregnant woman.

You need to do a little research. The Repubs are proposing a person hood bill. This has nothing to do with whether or not the govern provides birth control. This bill makes birthcontrol illegal period. Got that illegal! Your wonder boy Paul Ryan co sponsored the bill and 41 Repubs signed it. So yes women think there is a war on women. (Romeny said he would sign the bill.)

Furthermore Steve53 unless you have been forced to give one of your kidneys to save the life of those on waiting lists then you need to shut XX about telling women what they must do with their body.

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “The Negro cannot win as long as he is willing to sacrifice the lives of his children for comfort and safety.” How can the “Dream” survive if we murder the children?

Every aborted baby is like a slave in the womb of his or her mother. The mother decides his or her fate

Each year, almost a half a million black babies are lost to abortion.

The Life Education and Resource Network (LEARN), the largest African-American pro-life group in the country has stated that from 1973-2001, abortion has claimed more than two and a half times as many African-American lives as the next five leading causes combined.

In 2005, a total of 292,808 blacks died in the U.S. That same year, almost twice as many blacks (roughly 447,700) were killed by abortion.

In 2004, the black population in the U.S. stood at 36 million. Between 1973 and 2004, roughly 15 million blacks were aborted, which means that, as of 2004, nearly 30% of the black population has been lost to abortion!

And that doesn't even factor in all the children that would have been born to those aborted a generation ago. Population estimates show that blacks will soon lose their status as the nation's largest minority group.

To put it bluntly, abortion has thinned the black community in ways the Ku Klux Klan could have only dreamed of.

THE DEMOCRATS ARE CONTINUING THE WORK OF THE KKK WHICH THEY ORIGINATED.

So when the GOP was redefining rape as "forcible" rape, "legitimate" rape, passing governmetn ultrasound intrusion bills, and thirty plus abortions bills in the house instead of jobs, that was just the Dems rephrasing the debate. Politico has become Fox lite.